


The Statement of Altair Black

by MrProphet



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-22 03:50:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10689177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	The Statement of Altair Black

“I went to Castle ______ with my old teacher, Harald Skoillar, exploring the library of the Dark Magister, Vermis. We were there on an academic licence from the Department for Control of Dark Magic, cataloguing the works in Vermis’s personal collection. It had been twenty-one years since the death of the Magister and the protective spells which had defied the efforts of a generation of Aurors were finally falling to the ravages of time.

“We entered the library without difficulty and spent the first day casting every detection spell in our not-inconsiderable repertoire, to make sure that no harmful curses remained to trap the unwary. It was during this precautionary process that we located the door.

“It was one of my spells that located the concealing glamour. We spent three hours identifying the glamour, unpicking it strand by strand until the door was revealed; a heavy, wooden door with a steel lock forged of cold iron. It would have proved quite impossible to open, but during my time with Abuse of Muggle Artefacts I became quite skilled at a thing called ‘picking locks’; a Muggle version of an opening spell.

“The door opened onto a staircase, leading down into the foundations of the castle. As we descended, the air grew cold; our breath fogged in the air and no spell would heat it.

“At the bottom of the stairs we entered a vast chamber. The air was thick with frost and magic; holding spells, some of them long decayed, others still strong, but they would not have accounted for the cold. There was something in the chamber; something lying on the ground. They looked like rugs, but… slippery, somehow.

“Skoillar bent down to examine one of them, and that… that was when the rug reared up like a shadow. I felt a wave of terrible despair sweep out over me. Skoillar reeled and fell and the thing was on him, clutching at him and forcing it’s face on him in an obscene kind of kiss.

“That was when I knew what it was; what they all were. Dementors.

“I know there aren’t supposed to be any in Britain, but they were there, in Vermis’s laboratory. I sealed the door behind me, but the holding spells are old; they won’t last long. They need to be dealt with.

“You’ll deal with them, won’t you, Mr Fudge?”


End file.
